do horror films typically involve rape scenes? I'm not a big horror fan, the only horror I really enjoy are ones with religious and/or supernatural themes, but I don't really recall any rape in the other horror/ slasher (ha, horror slash slasher... yeah, you're right, that's not actually funny) films that I did happen to see.

edit: actually I do remember one now that I think about it in which SPOILER ALERT: some guys raped a teenage girl and her parents found out and murdered the shit out of the rapists._________________FormerlyGreen_Finn

So during my many trips on public transit I've noticed that there seems to be a subset of men who are unable to sit in a seat without sprawling their legs akimbo. I can't help but find this odd; I fully understand crossing legs or sitting with legs tightly together can be uncomfortable for a guy (learned from experience), but why would anyone need their knees to be 2 feet apart? Nobody is that well-endowed.

So I am wondering, is this about trying to show some sort of dominance? Is it to try and impress women (somehow?) It always looks to me almost like a form of posturing because a) it pretty much makes it impossible to sit next to them (e.g. "I am Man, I need space!"), b) it also looks like an attempt to draw attention to their crotch (almost like monkeys using erections as threat displays to other monkeys), and c) it seems to be most common among young men of the, uh, thuggish variety (as I rarely see it done by women, men in suits, nerds, etc.), and since most such men are generally perceived as fairly low-status, maybe they feel compelled to assert themselves in whatever ways they can?

I suppose this post is primarily about machismo. I can't think of any other reason a man would sit this way besides that. Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

(This post was prompted by annoyance at a guy doing exactly this on a crowded subway.)_________________Who needs a signature?

Last edited by Mini J on Wed May 01, 2013 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

i have a hard enough time riding the bus every day with people doing that without wondering if they're doing some sort of weird sexual aggression at me, like at any moment they're going to unfurl their frills as a display of dominance and squirt blood at me and try to chase me away from the thousands of eggs they buried somewhere under the seat

I'm inclined to not read any sort of sexual motivation into it but the more we discuss these things and the more I research them the more I realize that I can't accurately infer much about the average male's sexual motivations and desires based on my own._________________FormerlyGreen_Finn

So during my many trips on public transit I've noticed that there seems to be a subset of men who are unable to sit in a seat without sprawling their legs akimbo. I can't help but find this odd; I fully understand crossing legs or sitting with legs tightly together can be uncomfortable for a guy (learned from experience), but why would anyone need their knees to be 2 feet apart? Nobody is that well-endowed.

So I am wondering, is this about trying to show some sort of dominance? Is it to try and impress women (somehow?) It always looks to me almost like a form of posturing because a) it pretty much makes it impossible to sit next to them (e.g. "I am Man, I need space!"), b) it also looks like an attempt to draw attention to their crotch (almost like monkeys using erections as threat displays to other monkeys), and c) it seems to be most common among young men of the, uh, thuggish variety (as I rarely see it done by women, men in suits, nerds, etc.), and since most such men are generally perceived as fairly low-status, maybe they feel compelled to assert themselves in whatever ways they can?

I suppose this post is primarily about machismo. I can't think of any other reason a man would sit this way besides that. Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

(This post was prompted by annoyance at a guy doing exactly this on a crowded subway.)

Hrm. I can't speak for anyone else, but:

Eh I have done this ocassionaly, I think? I'm not sure how wide you're talking about. 45*-ish angle? More?

Though I also tend to cross my legs. I've found it honestly has to do with the pants I'm wearing/if my underwear is riding up. If I've accidentally put on tight jeans /gone "Oh fuck I washed these on hot again, didn't I. Damnit this is going to be uncomfortable until they loosen up, but I have no other clean pants", leg-crossing can become tricky and... a bit dangerous. It's less "I am well endowed" and "FUCK PANTS UNCOMFORTABLY TIGHT."

If it's, uh, due to underwear riding up in the, er, crotch, that's... well, not something one can really politely adjust on the subway/bus. Generally shoving one's hand down one's pants is considered a faux-paus.

Testing it out in my chair, it may also have something to do with slouching? If I slouch down in my seat, I find my legs seem to just sort of naturally spread at a more open (30-45*-ish, estimated). Siting up, they seem to be more parallel. (... Yes, I tested this a few times. I'm waiting for something to finish centrifuging. I'm bored.) That might fit with the more young-ish profile you suggested

Though if you're talking about more than a 45* spread, I dunno.

That said, I don't doubt that for some folks it IS machismo, a sort of "LOOK. LOOK AT MY CROTCH. I FLASH IT." Like some sort of... wide-stanced peacock or something I guess? I've never had the desire to do that, so I can't comment there._________________"No, but evil is still being --Is having reason-- Being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... Like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason."
-Ed, from Digger

well, I mean... why is anyone murdered in horror movies? If we go horror movies we also go all movies and if we go all movies we go all art. Why are people raped in fiction? Because rape is something that happens in life and art is a reflection of life.

Sadly rape is frequently used as a PLOT DEVICE with no actual art behind it, but that is some pretty subjective shit.

I guess when you're looking at genre stuff that slides towards pulp and horror pulp rape is usually used to assert that a male (usually) character is a bad guy, and we should feel good when he dies.

I mean... I don't quite get why you're asking? Or what you're asking?

Have we all been keeping up with Game of Thrones? Because shit almost went down with Theon that was pretty full on._________________Once, at a local NOW meeting where I was the only male among about a dozen women, a feminism trivia contest was held. I came in third.

The original question asked is why aren't men raped, there's a little bit of implication in that question, whether or not it is implied, that men should be raped. And they are, I can think of a handful of rape scenes involving men, strangely usually in comedies more so than horror which says a lot about the situation itself.

The thing is I don't like seeing anyone raped at all. But movie makers put it in their movies anyway and when I ask others about it, they all go because it's realism and shock value etc. Yet there is never a horror movie with a guy getting raped because "that's not what people want to see" (I seriously get this response every time). But women getting raped is what people do want to see? :S

These movies also are part of some very problematic ideas:
-That men never get raped
-That if a man has been raped he's not a man

Plus as Dennis said, it's often a really cheap plot device.

Long story short, lots of movie makers lack the tact to use rape (of women) properly but proceed to use it anyway as if it isn't a sensitive subject (is this part of rape culture?). I would've typed this yesterday along my question but I was too angry so it would've been an incoherent rant._________________www.cobrasphinx.nl

obviously i need to dress in bright colors to let potential predators know that i am poisonous

100% sure this is going to pop into my head while I shop for clothes in the future and probably going to be use as justification for horrible outfits that I will then wear with pride and use to scare away anyone too timid to admit they like me._________________Samsally the GrayAce